Wilson’s two free throws sink No. 16 Sun Devils

At Honolulu, A’ja Wilson made the easiest shot she would ever take and won the game.

Wilson stroked two free throws with 0.6 seconds to play to beat No. 16 Arizona State 60-58 on Friday, improving the No. 2 Gamecocks to 5-0. USC again survived a bad game to win, accumulating 21 turnovers and blowing a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.

“We played against a real good basketball team and the team that had the opportunity to make the last play was probably going to win it how the game was being played,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “Thankfully, it was us.”

With the score tied at 58 after USC took a seven-point lead, only to give up nine straight points, the Sun Devils had a chance to take the last shot to win. They missed and Wilson grabbed the rebound with less than nine seconds to go.

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Following a timeout, Wilson drove the lane and scored, but a whistle was called for a held ball when she was on the way up. USC retained possession on the arrow, and a shot from Alaina Coates with less than five seconds to go missed.

Wilson rebounded, shot and missed, rebounded, shot and missed again. A whistle blew and, following a replay, the final time was put back on the clock and Wilson was sent to the line.

She iced the game with her two free throws to notch another difficult victory.

“We wanted to make the emphasis to go inside and have A’ja kind of do what she did all game long, which was being able to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim,” said Staley, whose team was 1 of 11 on 3-pointers. “She did that, but with us you’ve got to take whatever the defense is giving us. They applied a lot of pressure on our perimeter players and made it hard for us to see our post players, so outside shots were the thing that they were giving us.”

Wilson carried the Gamecocks in the second and third quarters, but was mostly ignored in the fourth. Bianca Cuevas scored a game-high 18, using her speed to get past the Sun Devils (1-2), and helped USC take its fourth-quarter lead.

The Gamecocks blew that, but Tina Roy restored it with a 3-pointer, USC’s only one of 11 attempts for the game. Katie Hempen hit a 3 for the lead but a Coates putback of Shay Colley’s miss tied the game at 58, setting up ASU’s last possession, when the Devils shot but retained the ball after USC turned the rebound over.

USC will take on Cal State Bakersfield at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in its second tournament game.